March Madness 1st round wraps up with little drama, top seeds dominate

• The first round of the NCAA Tournament is in the books, and the field has been trimmed to 32 teams. For the most part, the top seeds and favorites had their way with the bracket.
• Only five double-digit seeds were able to pull upsets over the first two days of action.
• On Friday, Duke, Florida, Alabama and Arizona all scored over 90 points in their victories.

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The final eight games in the first round of the NCAA Tournament saw the favorites and higher-seeded teams dominate. West Region No. 1 Florida and East Region No. 4 Arizona both surpassed 90 points in easy victories.

Who is leading the way in the West Region?

The Gators stepped on the gas early as they sprinted past 16-seed Norfolk State. Walter Clayton, Jr. hit four 3-pointers and scored 23 points as Florida jumped to a 32-point first-half lead on the MEAC champion Spartans. The Gators won their seventh straight game and are moving on to the second round for the first time under head coach Todd Golden.

“Give credit to Norfolk, I thought they played really well,” Golden said after the 95-69 win. “They’re really hard to keep in front. They did a great job of driving us and killed us in the paint. They did a great job finishing at the rim. I thought they played really well the last 20 minutes of the game. Still really happy with the win, but we gotta clean it up a little bit, though, to get ready for Sunday.”

On Sunday, March 23, the Gators take on the 8-seed and two-time defending national champion Connecticut Huskies. The Huskies started their matchup with 9-seed Oklahoma on an 11-2 run and led until the 9-minute mark of the second half. From there, it was a barnburner as the teams traded buckets in the final minutes. The Huskies put together a 10-3 run in the final three minutes, and that turned out to be the difference. UConn advances with a 67-59 win and 13 straight wins in the NCAA Tournament.

Who pulled the upset in the South Region?

The South Region saw a mild upset Friday, March 21, as the New Mexico Lobos outlasted Marquette, 75-66, in the 10 vs. 7 showdown. The Lobos got 21 points from Donovan Dent as they won their first tournament game since 2012. Now, head coach Richard Pitino joins his father Rick, the head coach of St. John’s, in the second round.

“I just thought at the end of the game, we buckled down and got stops. We stopped turning the ball over,” Pitino said. “I thought the other guys, their spacing allowed Donovan to get going a little bit more. We slipped some stuff, got him downhill, and he was terrific.”

Also in the South, 2-seed Michigan State had some early trouble with Bryant but eventually pulled away in the second half to give Hall of Fame head coach Tom Izzo his 21st trip to the second round. Sparty will take on the Lobos on Sunday for a spot in the Sweet 16.

How did the Midwest and East brackets finish in round 1?

Another Big 10 power, Illinois, made their first appearance in the Big Dance in Milwaukee as they took on play-in winner Xavier. The Illini used a 17-6 run in the second half to pull away from a Musketeers squad that ran out of gas. Illinois will take on 3-seed Kentucky, who rode a big second half to a 19-point win over Troy earlier in the afternoon.

And finally, in the East bracket, the 4-seed Arizona Wildcats had no trouble turning up the pressure on the Akron Zips. The Wildcats shot 12 of 25 from 3-point range and threw down nine dunks. Those buckets helped five players reach double-figures in the 93-65 win.

“Other than being a little loose with the ball in the first half, I thought we were exceptional,” Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd said.

They’ll take on their former PAC 12 rivals, Oregon, on Sunday in Seattle. The Ducks took care of Liberty, Friday night, leading by 24 at halftime and cruising to an easy win.